News Release
May 22, 2008
Diana Whalen, MLA
Deputy Liberal Leader
Whalen to Introduce
Bill to Enhance Government Transparency
(Halifax, NS) Diana Whalen, MLA for Halifax Clayton Park and Deputy Liberal Leader outlined plans to introduce legislation to improve government transparency and to enhance public engagement.
“Transparency and the opportunity for public input are cornerstones of democracy,” stated Whalen. “My bill will ensure that the public are given the facts and allowed to comment when their money is being spent by the provincial government.”
Whalen’s bill would necessitate that the provincial government hold a public meeting when investing in a community project or facility. Any provincial commitment of money above $250,000, even if the project is municipally led, would require the government to disclose details and accept feedback on the proposed expenditure. The bill is intended to ensure that the lack of public engagement that has characterized the Mainland Common Recreation Centre will not be allowed in future projects.
``Democracy 250 is an opportunity to become more transparent and respectful of the taxpayers of this province. If the government won`t trust taxpayers with the facts, how can we expect voters to trust us by participating in elections?” said Whalen.
Despite both the municipality and province agreeing to funding amounts for the Mainland Common project, neither will unveil their building plans nor agree to hold a public meeting.
“This brand of secrecy and paternalism is all too prevalent in government in Nova Scotia,” said Whalen. “It appears as though the provincial and municipal governments have learned nothing from the failed Commonwealth Games bid.”
HRM has stated that the Mainland Common Recreation Centre is to be a state of the art, multi-dimensional recreation facility to serve the needs of the growing Halifax West area for the next 30 years. Its catchment area includes 200,000 people, almost 25% of the population of Nova Scotia, who live within a 20 minute drive of the site. HRM has revealed that the project will include a field house and aquatic component, but no further details have been released.
No public meetings have been held on the project since 2005. The community is holding a rally and March on Saturday, May 24 at 11 am to call on HRM to host a public meeting.
March 22, 2008
When will HRM, province learn?
Public input vital part of public projects
By DIANA WHALEN
The last HRM public meeting on the Mainland Common Recreation Centre was held in December 2005. It’s no wonder, then, that people are asking what is happening with the project because for the past month, drivers along Lacewood Drive have been watching as trees have come down and trucks and diggers are at work beside the Keshen Goodman Library.
This is the site proposed for the Mainland Common Recreation Centre, but surprisingly there have been no fanfare announcements and the community is in the dark.
The site preparation work is costing $1.8 million and yet HRM has not told the public what is included in the planned facility.
Inquiries from members of the public to HRM and to the provincial Office of Health Promotion have been met with a decided lack of information. We are told that the province and HRM are working closely, but the details can’t be revealed to the public.
The powers-that-be intend to meet with federal representatives to make their request for funding. This hasn’t taken place yet, so they contend there can be no discussion or consultation with the community.
Closed-door meetings and a lack of public information: Does this sound familiar? It has been just over a year since the Commonwealth Games bid collapsed. It appears as though HRM and the province have learned nothing from their mistakes.
The public demands and deserves no less than full accountability when their money is being spent. Recreation facilities are desperately needed in Nova Scotia, and the old-time attitude of "We know what’s best for you" coming from the two levels of government is not appropriate or acceptable in 2008.
Throughout the province, there are pressing community needs and growing frustration. A year ago, the province and HRM were each willing to put forward $300 million to fund the Commonwealth Games. We were chasing the Games because we have a serious lack of recreational facilities, and this was seen as a way to address that. In the meantime, our government has abandoned this commitment to recreation and we are back to Square 1.
One only has to look at the recent meeting in Bedford to see that people are impatient with the lack of consultation and progress on recreation needs. A basic premise of any successful project is citizen engagement, yet this is being ignored.
At the Mainland Commons, there is a chance to build a first-class facility that will serve the 200,000 people who live within a 20-minute drive.
The HRM report on the site work says that "final design details of the facility and a funding strategy are currently being reviewed with the provincial and federal governments." Apparently, when a funding announcement is made, there will be an open house and the plans will be presented to the public. Consulting with the public after plans have been finalized behind closed doors is not good enough!
What meaningful level of input will the community have, once the funding is secured and the announcement is made? The father-knows-best attitude of both the municipal and provincial governments is patronizing and short-sighted.
Other municipalities have been open and accountable and won the support and commitment of their communities. Port Hawkesbury built an $18-million centre for its community and Bridgewater is working with the public to plan its $30-million centre; yet here in HRM, the people are not consulted.
A year after the collapse of the Commonwealth Games bid, we find the province and HRM still trying to manage public projects without public input.
Diana Whalen is the deputy leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party and the MLA for Halifax-Clayton Park.
For more information, go to the Build It Right site -
www.build-it-right.ca |
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Federal cash holding up details of $40.7-million rec centre
Halifax Mainland Common project ready to go but frustration mounts as feds drag heels on announcement
By AMY PUGSLEY FRASER City Hall Reporter
Wed. Jun 4 - 5:36 AM
A $40.7-million recreation centre is in the works for Halifax’s Mainland Common.
The site has been cleared, the plans are drawn up and the funding appears to be in place. It’s just that no one can announce it yet.
Last week, the city unveiled its brand new "community facility master plan." The 159-page book contains a tiny line item for the recreation centre under the "Capital program summary," outlining an outlay of $40.7 million.
Even faced with such proof that the centre exists, regional councillors are still keeping mum.
"I would love to go to the community and say, ‘Here’s the project we’re building for you,’ but I can’t say much about it," said Coun. Russell Walker (Fairview-Clayton Park).
The funding for the state-of-the-art centre is virtually equally divided among the city ($12 million), the province and the feds ($13.34 million apiece).
But the announcement of the rec centre, expected as long ago as last year, is still on hold, pending a nod from the federal government. And it doesn’t even appear to be on Ottawa’s radar.
On Tuesday, the news from the office of Peter MacKay, the minister responsible for ACOA, was that there’s "no news."
"At this time, we don’t have an announcement to provide to you, nor is there a date for any announcement," Jay Paxton, Mr. MacKay’s press secretary, said from Ottawa.
It’s not just the delay that has tongues wagging in Halifax.
The public process surrounding the design of the centre has prompted people to write blogs on the Internet and organize letter-writing campaigns to local newspapers. It also spurred Liberal MLA Diana Whalen to draft a private member’s bill.
In the last week of the legislature’s spring sitting, Ms. Whalen unsuccessfully introduced a bill calling for a mandatory public process in projects with provincial funding of over $250,000. The impetus, she said, was the process surrounding the Mainland Common Recreation Centre.
"The public demands and deserves no less than full accountability when their money is being spent," she wrote in a March op-ed piece in The Chronicle Herald.
"Recreation facilities are desperately needed in Nova Scotia, and the old-time attitude of ‘We know what’s best for you’ coming from the two levels of government is not appropriate or acceptable in 2008."
Susan Kirkland agrees. The president of Build it Right, a residents group fighting for a recreation centre that people want, said the ground has been cleared on the Mainland Common but the community still hasn’t been told what will be built there. The last big public meeting was almost three years ago, she said.
"It’s just not right that the community doesn’t know what’s going on in their own neighbourhood, with tax dollars that they pay for," Ms. Kirkland said.
"And you can be sure that the community is going to be asked to fundraise as well as pay taxes for what is going on."
Mr. Walker said public input was invited, and acted upon, during the design process.
"We had meetings with all the stakeholders to get their input on what they wanted in a facility," he said.
He acknowledged there’s been no public meeting recently but he said open houses that were held were sufficient in terms of planning.
"The big thing was that when we won the 2011 Canada Winter Games, the vision of what we needed to build for those Games was built into this facility," Mr. Walker said.
As a result, the rec centre has grown in scope from $8 million to $11 million to $24 million to $40 million, he said. And it’s clear that nothing will be built without federal money, he said.
A public meeting to announce plans for the new rec centre will be held soon, Mr. Walker promised — "as soon as this federal money is announced."
He said he has seen the plans and the finished rec centre will be "wonderful."
"I would be surprised if any community in Nova Scotia would turn down this rec centre. That’s how nice it is," Mr. Walker said.
The Sackville Sports Stadium, built in 1990, is the last full-service recreation centre built in metro Halifax. It includes hockey and curling rinks, two pools, a fitness centre, a daycare and activity rooms.
Two years earlier, Cole Harbour Place went up, with two arenas and pools, squash courts, fitness and community rooms, a library and a canteen. |
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